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EU law-making process needs reform
October 27, 2005 12:00 AM
By Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP in Wimbledon Guardian
By Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP in Wimbledon Guardian
Laws should not be made behind closed doors, but that is exactly what our ministers do when they get together in Brussels.
Draft EU legislation has to be approved or amended both by the European Parliament and by the Council of Ministers representing the 25 Governments. But while MEPs meet in public the ministers debate in secret.
The European ombudsman recently declared the council of ministers guilty of maladministration for this, and rightly so. How can they be held to account if no-one knows what they have been saying?
Improving this situation only requires a simple change in the standing orders of ministerial meetings. In pressing for this, Liberal Democrats have secured not only the backing of the Conservative and Labour leaders in the European Parliament, but even that of the UK Independence Party.
In calling for change, MEPs have been criticised by some who say that no element of the failed constitutional treaty should be salvaged.
Yet I heard nobody oppose the EU constitution on grounds of retaining secretive law making.
Britain holds the presidency of the EU until the end of the year, so our Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is the man who can propose the reform. Making a change to inject a bit more openness and transparency into the EU law-making process would surely be a worthwhile achievement.
Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP Liberal Democrat MEP for London
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